Sankar Guha Niyogi murder case

Sankar Guha Niyogi murder case was finally disposed off on January 20 by the Supreme Court. A radical trade union leader of Madhya Pradesh, he operated from Dalli–Rajahra, the mining belt of the Bhilai Steel Plant. He was shot dead in 1991.

A member of the National Council of the PUCL, and founder of the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha, he had integrated labour welfare schemes into his trade union activities. Whenever he went an exhibition of “Sharaab bandi” went with him. He exhorted his union members to give-up drinking and to deposit the money so saved in Banks.

A trial court in 1997 had sentenced one Pattan Mallah to death and Mool Chand Shah and Chandrakant Shah, owners of Simplex Industries, and three others to life imprisonment. On an appeal the MP High Court overturned the verdict saying there was insufficient evidence. President of the PUCL, K.G. Kannabiran, assisted by Dr. V. Suresh, General Secretary of Tamil Nadu & Pondicherry PUCL, appeared for prosecution. The case was passed on to the CBI. The CBI appealed against the High Court order. –